At the end of the day, this is one man's creative vision for his game. I would never want to see social pressures force him to "tone it down" or make the female characters "more realistic."

The only way to get more games with strong female characters who are created in a more heroic aspect are to MAKE those games. You'll never get anywhere trying to shame a developer for his creativity.

The fact is that the indie market is open for anyone to make and sell their games. The barriers are all but non existent for those with the know-how. The only reason we don't see more female-empowering games is because people just aren't making them.

Also, criticizing a game from an entirely different culture--one that actually makes games for a female audience, mind you--is more xenophobic than helpful for feminism.

I think I'm the only one who's mad about this. Not what Nintendo said--since they haven't allowed creative visions to overtake their games for some time. They're notorious for boxing people's ideas into their IPs. That's why Starfox Adventures happened and why they continue to find ways to make Kirby games. Chalk-outline Link doesn't even look like it belongs in a Legend of Zelda game, and I'm sure it doesn't.

You can talk about how Nintendo just harkens back to when games were just games trying to be fun, but back then Nintendo made art. They didn't know what people wanted, so they had to make the games they wanted and hoped people would follow. Zelda was art; Mario was art; Metroid was art. The problem now is that they know what a "Nintendo game" is and what people want from that, and they're continuing to deliver that.

Essentially, Nintendo is checking boxes, making the games people want without any care for what their developers might want to make. They release the same games every year with minimal improvements or tacked-on additions, similar to a Call of Duty or Assassins's Creed.

I remember when EA said that they were trying to give all play-styles something to love with SSX, and there was a huge shitstorm, because the game was just heartlessly checking boxes, and it was no better than Call of Duty with snow.

Now, Nintendo is essentially saying the same thing and they get nothing but praised for it.

I guess companies only make soulless products, until you start to like their soulless products.